Building date: 1832 ²
Original use:
Corner structures:
Mortar application and content: Vertical heavy
Types and uses of stones:
Types and choice of windows: Quoin-like sides
Structures with similar masonry details: Rus-5 Barber-Mulligan
Masons who worked on building:
Unique features:
Map views courtesy Google Maps. Address is Google Earth confirmed; 42°54'07.44"N 77°37'54.31"W. Current owner of record, Knop as of date (YMD) 190416.
Town of Lima and Livingston County Maps
This home at 6870 Route 5 and 20, Lima, the Morgan House was built in 1832 ² for Jasper Marvin. It was placed on the National Register in 1989. Decorative arch fan is over front door entrance. In 1852 it was the David Olney residence. It was sold to William Cook in 1855. For many years it was owned by the pioneer Morgan family and served as a tenant house. Richard Palmer blog.
According to its date stone, the Morgan house was built in 1832 ². It is located on Routes 5 and 20 west of the village of Lima. With its gable roof and simple returns, end chimney, and center entrance capped with a semi-elliptical stone arch with keystone and wooden fan, the house is a representative of the vernacular Greek Revival architectural style.
Before extension of the rear wing to two stories, the design of the Morgan house is almost identical to that of the cobblestone Markham house. It is noteworthy that only in these two houses are among the few that have the semi-elliptical arch used as an element of doorway design.
There is some discrepancy as to the name of the original owner. The earliest known map of Lima, published in 1852, denotes a structure in the location of the home as belonging to David Olney. Further search of land records shows this parcel was owned by Jasper Marvin in 1832, who was probably the first owner. Census records do not show that the Olney property contained the cobblestone house. Olney sold his property to William Cook in 1855 for $1,500. Cook's listing in the 1855 census indicates this $1, 500 worth of real estate contained a wood rather than a cobblestone dwelling.
It is more likely that the cobblestone house was erected on the 114 acres to the east of the land owned by Olney and Cook; land that was part of the property owned by John Morgan, who came to Lima in the 1790s from Springfield, Massachusetts and built the c. 1815 Federal brick home located across the road 0.15 miles to the east. The cobblestone Morgan House could have been built by Morgan as a tenant house or home for one of his sons, Shepard, John, Ir. or David B., all of whom inherited his estate as tenants in common upon John's in 1846. Why this home would not have appeared on the 1852 map is unknown.
The Morgans were early Lima settlers who came to the area in the 1790s. John Morgan's father, Revolutionary war soldier Captain John Morgan, is known to have built a log house on the north side of the State Road before 1791. In 1815, John Morgan built his brick house adjacent to the log structure. It was one of the well-known taverns on the Ontario and Genesee Turnpike, complete with a ballroom. Other Morgans settled the surrounding area prior to 1795, including Elijah, Colonel David, and David's cousin, Abner, a Brimfield, Massachusetts lawyer and Major in the Revolution who purchased about 8000 acres from Abner Mighells in 1791. John Morgan’s son, Shepard P. Morgan, served Lima as supervisor from 1861-1865.
The Morgan house is also significant for its association with Limas agriculture. Shepard P. Morgan became the principal owner of the property by 1850 and farmed about l90 acres. Census records indicate that by 1875, he had retired and was living in the cobblestone home while his son David B. Morgan, educated at GWS and considered a "thriving farmer", lived in the brick house. David’s daughter, Melissa, carried on the family farming operation (listed as dairying in the 1917 Farm Directory for Monroe and Livingston counties) until she sold the entire farm complex including the cobblestone and brick homes to Samuel Hanna in 1918.
The home's role as a tenant house to the brick house continued into the twentieth century, for in 1937 owner Herbert Knop advertised the Morgan house for rent thusly: "stone tenant house - tenant may work for me to pay rent." Richard Palmer blog.
² Note building date discrepancy. Roudabush states 1835, whereas Palmer notes 1832 on a date stone.
The Morgan Farmhouse, courtesy the Tom The Backroads Traveller blog.
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National Register of Historic Places Registration
- "Cobblestone Masonry", 1966, Carl Schmidt: Name reference, Morgan - Knop House
- Pages 34 - 35
¹ Image courtesy Cobblestone Museum.
² Photography courtesy Martin and Sheila Wolfish.
³ Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.
